The All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group has published a second report, No Lawful Impediment, calling for immediate legal recognition of humanist marriages in England and Wales. Its previous report  was published in 2018. The new report concludes that the case for legal recognition has only grown stronger, and that there is now no good reason not to implement this change immediately. Humanists UK has welcomed the report and points out that recognition of humanist weddings could be done through secondary legislation.

The APPG also called on the Government to recognise that it is obliged to legislate for humanist marriages following the judgment in R (Harrison & Ors) v Secretary of State for Justice [2020] EWHC 2096 (Admin) because the High Court found that the lack of legal recognition was discriminatory.

Given that ministers are currently considering the final recommendations of the Law Commission on overhauling the law in weddings in England and Wales, we would have thought it unlikely that the Government would respond positively to the APPG’s report in advance of publishing its own conclusions on weddings law reform – however much needed legal recognition for humanist weddings may be.